Laraine Day

I recall playing practical jokes with John Wayne. I once got a whole bunch of keys and had little tags made that said, "If lost, please return to John Wayne, RKO Studios. Reward." And I just dropped them all over town. [He got a lot of] phone calls, people showing up at the studio. He never learned who did it.

Classic Images Magazine, "Talking with Laraine Day", May 31, 1996.

I am very much a Republican. I think that Richard Nixon is a great man and that he is very dedicated to what he does. I had the pleasure of meeting him when I attended the Republican National Convention in Miami. You can really tell that he is willing to go out of his way to help the American people. I am proud to support him as president and I wish him all the success in the world and may I also say that it was an honor to endorse him.

I enjoyed working at RKO more than at MGM. At RKO the parts were better!

Classic Images Magazine, "Talking With Laraine Day", May 31, 1996.

A lot of sources said I was born in 1917. That is incorrect. I was born in 1920. 1917 was the year the studios listed as my birth year to make me appear younger.

The New York Times, "A Conversaton with Laraine Day, Hollywood's Girl Next Door", June 9, 1984.

MGM never really gave me a break. They loaned me out for leading roles, but cast me in programme pictures.

The Independent, Obituaries, Laraine Day, November 13, 2007.

Hitchcock was a character. In one particularly scary scene I had to sneak down a dark corridor. When I got to the end there was Mr. Hitchcock, sticking out his tongue and flapping his hands in the back of his ears. I didn't dare laugh, because the cameras were turning. But he certainly eliminated any tension I felt.

The Independent, Obituaries, Laraine Day, November 13, 2007.

Cary [Grant] would arrive on the set and everybody's morale immediately lifted. The crew were crazy about him and so was I. But, curiously, I never felt the male-female chemistry that you sometimes experience on a set. I could have been talking to my best girl-friend.

The Independent, Obituaries, Laraine Day, November 13, 2007.

Gary [Cooper] turned out to be the surprise of my young life. He was so convincing with his stuttering, stammering awkward little boy manners. When the action called for Dr. Wassell to kiss me, I got all set for a bashful boy kiss. Well, it was like holding a hand grenade and not being able to get rid of it! I was left breathless.

The Independent, Obituaries, Laraine Day, November 13, 2007.

(On her work in Keep Your Powder Dry) I didn't want to do it, but they said if I did it they would give me Undercurrent with Robert Taylor. Then they gave Undercurrent to Katharine Hepburn, so I left MGM.

The Independent, Obituaries, Laraine Day, November 13, 2007.

(On her role in The Locket) My character was the greatest challenge I ever had – a destructive young woman who's a kleptomaniac. The form of the film – flashbacks within flashbacks within flashbacks – was criticised by some reviewers of the time as too confusing. Today, though, its style is highly regarded by film historians. . . Many movie fans seem to remember me best from the Dr. Kildare series but, first and foremost, I remember The Locket.

The Independent, Obituaries, Laraine Day, November 13, 2007.

Ronald Reagan makes me proud to be an American. His intelligence, capability, and Christian brotherhood are so inspiring and his way of leadership is just superb. I consider myself lucky to have been his leading lady in The Bad Man and a short subject reel and as a nation all together we are beyond fortunate to have the leadership of such fine people as the Reagan's.

The New York Times, "A Conversaton with Laraine Day, Hollywood's Girl Next Door", June 9, 1984.